E-connecting City's emission testing hubs

The Transport Department will soon connect all the 216 emission testing centres across Bangalore to a central server to monitor vehicles spewing exhaust smoke to make the process more stringent.

The process, to be effective two months from now, will make motorists strictly adhere to emission control norms and would even record the mobile number and e-mail of the vehicle owner who takes the vehicle for testing. According to Commissioner for Transport and Road Safety, Bhaskar Rao, the pilot project here is only the second in the country, after the national capital.

“It will be implemented as per the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) initiative. Though the Motor Vehicle Act 1988 and the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989 (Rule 115/116) mandates that any vehicle, over three years from the date of manufacture have to obtain a emission certificate every six months, most vehicle owners ignore this. By e-connecting all emission testing centres to a central server, the Department can henceforth monitor all vehicles individually at our database,” Rao said.

According to the Commissioner, this project, a part of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) initiative of the Department will make use of information technology (IT) to monitor emission checks from the central database and also prevent misuse of emission testing equipment at centres by way of manipulation.

“By opting for this initiative, the Department can keep track of every single vehicle that has been given a ‘Pollution Free’ certificate and cross-check it with the data from all regional transport offices (RTO). Those vehicles that have been found to have not complied with law will be sent an e-mail or an sms or even a notice from the Department,” explained Rao.

The project will have the State-run undertaking, KEONICS to provide the software logistics and would be in active partnership with the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB). Transport and goods vehicles found violating emission control norms, even stand the risk of cancellation of permits, say the Transport Department officials.